Drifters Episode 5 was perhaps the most direct episode of the series we’ve seen to date. While interesting, the plot followed a very linear path as we watched Toyohisa and his group progress from one battle to another. While it’s a bit different than what we’ve seen, I wouldn’t call it a back thing.

The episode was broken into two categories: combat and planning. Within the combat sections we saw two battles happen as well as the aftermath of the slaughter at the beginning of the episode. Seeing the Drifters organize the Elves into a militia and enable the abused people to fight back was fantastic. It was like watching an underdog come back to win a fight after being abused for so long. Beyond simple fighting, we got to see the Elves organized for deceptive tactics as Nobunaga had the group dress in the enemy’s armor to infiltrate their stronghold for a surprise attack.

Naturally, the hero of the battles was Toyohisa. Even though he is wild, Toyohisa showed us that a warrior still has a strong sense of morals to be followed this week. I’m truly beginning to love his character between his berserker tactics of rushing into battle to claim the enemy commander’s head and his concrete moral compass. I’m interested to see where the next episode takes Toyohisa. He has followed a certain code of mercy and combat until this point but that may not be something he can maintain after witnessing what has happened to the women of the Elves.

The other aspect the episode focused on was the war planning of Oda Nobunaga. Using shit to contaminate arrows and assist in the process of decomposing bodies into sulfur, Nobunaga truly showed that anything could have value in a time of war. Personally, I don’t know if a rain of arrows could be made any worse than by dunking them in feces. Though it’s obviously a ways away considering the time needed to actually cultivate gunpowder, I’m excited to see where Nobunaga might take the army with his wartime innovations.

“Bring Back Love” was almost a something of a foil to the previous episode; a large focus on action and planning with little revealed about the plot or its characters. Drifters may be the type of series that breaks its development of the plot and its characters into different parts. Alternating the focus of its episodes could be viewed as a weakness but, as of now, I have no problem with the way Drifters is pushing itself forward.

Bring Back Love"Bring Back Love" was something of a foil to the previous episode with a large focus on action and planning rather than plot or character development. Drifters may be a series that separates developments into different parts and while this could be viewed as a weakness but, as of now, I'm enjoying the progression of the series.

About Matthew Boss

Co-Founder and Lead Editor. Just a big fan of gaming, anime, manga... I tend to like most everything. Which annoys some people. Sorry about that. Anyway, living the simple life and posting about this stuff is all that's on my menu.